News from around the world

A convicted Internet predator who was planning to drink alcohol and have sex with a 14-year-old girl will spend the next 12 years in prison.

An Aiken County jury took less than an hour to convict Benjamin Paul Green, IV, 29, of Grey’s Inn Road in Columbia of attempted criminal sexual conduct with a minor and attempted solicitation of a minor.

Green sobbed, holding his clasped hands to his forehead as Judge Doyet A. “Jack” Early Jr. pronounced sentence. Then, Green, a father of two, fell forward to the bar before he was removed from the courtroom yelling “But, I have babies.”

The defendant engaged in an online chat with an Aiken County Sheriff’s Office investigator who was fishing for predators under the username “LittleMandy14SC.”

After a sexually explicit conversation in which the “girl” agreed to meet for sex, Green hoped in his two-door Oldsmobile and with a bottle of liquor, condoms and a sexual drug supplement, drove an hour to Beech Island.

“For the defendant, the Internet was a doorway into little Mandy,” Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Ringler said in closing. “The defendant intended to walk through it and into little Mandy’s bedroom.”

When he arrived, Green was arrested by three Aiken County investigators.

Green’s computer was seized. Pictures of himself that he had sent to the “girl,” including two photos of his genitals, where found on his computer. Further analysis showed a previous chat with a 17-year-old in which meeting for sex was discussed and Green told her “I got in trouble before, so I’m scared.”

As a defense, attorney Michael McMullen called the woman whose picture was used on the profile of “LittleMandy14SC.” Taken when she was 24, McMullen stressed his client was meeting someone as old as in the picture.

In the chat, however, Green acknowledged the age of the “girl” on several occasions.

In a rambling, disjointed closing, McMullen moved tangentially around the facts and attacked the law itself – which he was rebuked for several times by Early.

McMullen blamed the chat provider, Yahoo.com, for allowing kids on their sites and also claimed all of the chat was fantasy.

“This was no fantasy. He brought his condoms, he brought his liquor, he brought his supplements to make sure it happened,” Ringler said. “He had the whole evening planned.”

“The evidence was overwhelming, way beyond reasonable doubt,” Early said at sentencing. “We have to protect our children… Thank goodness we have this task force that is able to prevent this type of crime.”

A convicted child molester is reaching out to his victims from behind prison bars.

Jason Newsom, 38, was convicted of sexually abusing four boys at his New Caney wildlife farm several years ago. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

Kim’s son was just 15 when he was molested by Newsom. She wants her name kept private to protect her now 20-year-old son.

“I’m not an angry person, but for the first time in my life I wanted someone dead,” she said. “My son went from being a very happy child to having anger issues.”

Newsom isn’t allowed to contact any of his victims, but he has.

But earlier this year, Kim’s family received a letter of apology from Newsom despite signing up for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s non-correspondence list. That means she should not be contacted by her son’s attacker ever.

“That’s violating us all over again,” she said. A loophole in the rule allowed Newsom to pull it off by sending the letter to the child’s attorney who forwarded it to the four victims.

As if that weren’t shocking enough, months later Kim discovered Newsom had a profile on http://www.myspace.com operated by a third party.

“This is a fascinating issue and could be a catalyst for change,” said crime victims’ advocate Andy Kahan. “MySpace security can only look through filtration of sex offenders who are registered. Because Newsom is serving time, he doesn’t have to register.”

It’s another loophole, perhaps, one mother hopes will bring change.

“If I can just help one child, that would do a lot of healing for me too,” said Newsom.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is investigating the matter. Inmates mail can be opened by prison officials, unless it’s sent to a law enforcement officer, judge, or in this case, an attorney.

A Galveston County woman has filed suit against a La Marque apartment complex, claiming it was aware one of its employees is a registered sex offender who then allegedly raped her 14-year-old daughter on its premises six months ago.

The mother and daughter, referred to as Jane and Sally Doe respectively in court documents, accuse DJP Holdings LLC, which is doing business as La Mark Apartments, of carelessly hiring and retaining Juan Lauderdale as a resident maintenance worker.

The suit was filed in Galveston County District Court on June 15.

Lauderdale and apartment manager Damien J. Patrick are named co-defendants in the case.

“Defendants DJP Holdings LLC d/b/a La Mark Apartments and Damien J. Patrick knew or should have known of Juan Lauderdale’s dangerous and exploitative propensities as a child sexual abuser, and despite such knowledge, negligently retained (Juan) Lauderdale and failed to warn those coming into contact with him, including minor plaintiff and the minor plaintiff’s family, of (Juan) Lauderdale’s propensities,” the original petition states.

The suit claims that Lauderdale was already on the list of registered sex offenders in connection with the sexual assault of a young girl in 1996 when the apartment management entrusted the La Mark property to his care.

Jane Doe alleges Lauderdale, 32, brutally and repeatedly sexually assaulted her daughter at knifepoint for an unspecified number of hours on Dec. 29, 2008, after he brought the teen to his unit for a tattooing session.

Law enforcement officials in the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area arrested Lauderdale in Somerville a month after the alleged attack.

The suspect was then turned over to Galveston County and indicted on Feb. 28 for aggravated sexual assault with a child and failure to register as a sex offender as a result of the incident.

He remains in the Galveston County Jail.

Consequently, the suit evokes the writ of respondeat superior against the apartment complex and Patrick.

The elder plaintiff insists her daughter was negatively impacted by the encounter with Lauderdale.

“As a direct and proximate result of the sexual assault and the negligent conduct of the defendants, minor plaintiff suffered severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, and other psychological injuries,” the suit says. “These affects are permanent and will abide with the minor plaintiff for her entire life.”

The plaintiffs seek restitution for the girl’s medical treatment in addition to a jury trial.

Houston attorney Jennifer H. Kahn is representing the plaintiff.

The case has been assigned to Galveston County 122nd District Court Judge John Ellisor.

A twice-convicted Belgian paedophile who moved into a victim’s home after being released from a Cambodian prison plans to marry the victim’s mother, national media reported Tuesday.

Anti-trafficking police said Philippe Dessart, who was released from prison April 4, proposed to his victim’s mother shortly before he left for Belgium on June 3, The Cambodia Daily reported.

Dessart was released after serving three years of an 18-year prison term for abusing the then-13-year-old boy after a successful appeal of his sentence.

Anti-paedophile groups said in April that they were shocked to discover Dessart had moved in with his victim, now 16, after his release and expressed concern over a younger male sibling also living in the house.

Police said Dessart travelled to Belgium to arrange documents for the marriage and would return to Cambodia in the next few weeks.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Belgian Philippe Dessart to 18 years in prison for child sex abuse, finding that the 47-year-old former teacher was an incorrigible repeat sex offender.

A Belgian court convicted Dessart of child rape and torture in 1994, sentencing him to five years, of which he served three.

Frederic Huyghe said that his brother Pierre, one of Dessart’s three Belgian victims, had expressed relief when told of the verdict but felt concern for the family of his Cambodian victim. “I know it ate at my father for years,” Huyghe said.

Dessart was arrested April 10 at a Phnom Penh guesthouse in the company of a boy, then 13 years old, who authorities said was naked and had engaged in sexual relations with Dessart for two to three years.

In his verdict, Ke Sakhorn said Dessart paid the victim’s family for access to the boy, whom he repeatedly abused. The Belgian had recanted an incriminating confession to police in an effort to escape prosecution, the judge said. “Philippe Dessart was incorrigible when he came to Cambodia and committed debauchery against the boy,” he added.

Dessart’s defense team had hammered away at length at the prosecution’s case, pointing out that all testimony implicating Dessart had been recanted and that police searched Dessart’s room without a warrant and provided no physical evidence. Dessart testified that police had offered to help him if he confessed to the crime.

However Keo Thea, deputy director of the municipal anti-trafficking police, said Dessart had freely confessed during interrogation and even acted out his relations with the boy.

“He said he wanted to marry [the boy] and I said only in the future when he becomes an adult,” Keo Thea testified.

Investigators say any time a child alleges abuse, they take it seriously and so should adults – especially educators.

Indianapolis – An IPS teacher has been arrested for child molestation.

John Marshall Community High School math teacher Lee Tibbetts was placed on administrative leave by Indianapolis Public Schools with pay during the investigation. Metro police sex crimes detective Greg Norris arrested Tibbetts after a thorough investigation, but the case is far from over.

Tibbetts, 33, faces five counts of child molestation and he was also arrested for one count of child solicitation involving a second student last year. One of Tibbetts’ 13-year-old male students claims he was repeatedly molested by the teacher in classrooms at the school.

“Alleging that he engaged in improper conduct during school hours on school property,” said IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson.

The student also claims Tibbetts threatened to fail him if he ever told anyone.

Eyewitness News has now learned that IPS is investigating how another teacher handled information when the 13-year-old told her about the abuse in March. A school administrator also allegedly scorned Tibbetts after finding him and the boy in a locked classroom, but never suspected misconduct.

But now, sex crimes detectives are convinced that Tibbetts crossed the line.

“Because that’s where this case has gone from the beginning. We had one victim that had come forward, the complaint had been filed and the investigation was initiated. After that investigation was initiated, we heard additional complaints, at least one that has been verified of which he has been arrested for,” said Sgt. Thompson.

The investigation is ongoing, since detectives believe there is a possibility of other victims. Tibbetts first came under investigation in August 2008 when a 15-year-old boy complained to his mother about the teacher’s sexual advances.

“Asking him about his sexual preference, placing his hand on his knee, offering money. Stuff he should not have done as a teacher,” said the victim’s mother.

But the school dismissed the case, telling the boy’s mother the allegations were unfounded.

“The kids who came forward, I would say that they were pretty honest with what they were conveying to me,” White said.

White said he suspected the teacher all along and didn’t trust him alone with students.

“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” White said. “But as a precaution with students, I wanted him removed.”

Investigators say any time a child alleges abuse, they take it seriously and so should adults – especially educators.

“It needs to be brought to the attention of law enforcement immediately so we can investigate,” Sgt. Thompson said.

Police believe there may be more victims waiting to come tell their own story.

“Once this is out in the media, there’s always the possibility of someone else coming forward and additional charges and investigation,” Sgt. Thompson said.

Tibbetts denies any wrongdoing, including improper contact with the victims. As part of their investigation, detectives are looking at the teacher’s computer and phone records. He will make his first court appearance next week.

A registered sex offender was arrested today and charged with producing child pornography after federal agents searched his Bloomingdale apartment and found a number of images of a nude, underage girl in his computer.

David Tank, 47, and his girlfriend babysat for the girl from time to time, according to a federal complaint. Tank’s girlfriend was not charged with any wrongdoing.

Tank has been a registered sex offender since March 2005, the complaint stated.

He was ordered held in federal custody today pending a detention hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown.

An awful crime goes unreported and causes a juvenile victim to suffer in silence for years. Waco police say knowing about a crime and not telling them could also land you in jail.

News Channel 25 reported in late April about Thomas Hilliard, who was sentenced to eight life terms in prison for sexually abusing a young girl, continually over several years. But police say someone else knew about the sexual abuse and never reported it. Sixty-four year old Geneva Hilliard was arrested Wednesday night for abandoning and endangering a child.

According to the arrest warrant, Hilliard was told by the victim about the abuse but Hilliard told the young girl, to quote, “shut up and not tell anyone.” To make matters worse, police say the victim was still exposed to Thomas Hilliard who was abusing her.

Waco Police Detective Kim Clark says unfortunately this happens a lot in child sexual abuse cases. Many times adults don’t want to believe the abuse is occurring. But she says by not telling you become part of the crime.

“Even if you don’t believe the child, you have to report it because children give little bits and pieces to get people’s reaction. You may not get the whole story until somebody starts believing them. If no one gives them the opportunity to speak then they’ll remain quiet and it will continue to happen,” said Clark.

Thomas Hilliard is serving his eight life terms while Geneva Hilliard bonded out of the McLennan County Jail Thursday morning.

“At last I can finally speak out. Not like the dark old days, people are listening now.”

A JUDGE who jailed an elderly former Victorian priest for sex offences against a boy 41 years ago has damned the repeat pedophile offender for his lack of true remorse.

Judge Frank Gucciardo yesterday told the man his absence of contrition “displays a turpitude of character that borders on the scandalous and is offensive to morality and the law”.

Judge Gucciardo said Desmond Gannon’s explanations for his conduct, when interviewed by police last year, betrayed self-delusion and a “lack of understanding of the impact of your behaviour” on his victim.

He told Gannon, 79, that his demeanour in the interview and in a taped conversation with the victim was disturbing but “consistent with your appearance in court, clearly nonchalant and dismissive”. Gannon, prosecuted for the fifth time for offences between 1958 and 1976, pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a boy aged 11.

From August to September 1968, when Gannon was a priest in Kilmore, he assaulted the boy in a car, on a bush track, in a church and at a pool. Now 51, the man said in a victim impact statement that after the abuses he had felt “broken, old, clumsy, dirty, ugly, guilty, confused, rejected, worthless and scared”.

Judge Gucciardo said it was his view that “the vindication of a victim’s plight in cases of this kind is central to the function of the criminal justice system”.

A psychiatrist reported that Gannon had a perverse psychosexual structure and had made “some progress” by expressing concern for the victim and the gravity of the offences.

But Judge Gucciardo said such progress was not the same as contrition and remorse “unaccompanied by empathy or compassion for the victims but delivered with indignation at your own fate”.

While Gannon posed little risk to the community, the jail sentence “is a recognition of the significance of the wrong inflicted”. Gannon was jailed for 25 months with a minimum term of 14 months.

In a statement to the court, the victim, who is now in his 50s, said he had gone from being a happy boy who wanted to be a policeman, to a delinquent who spent time in jail.

“Father Gannon has succeed in destroying all my hopes and dreams,” he said.

“At last I can finally speak out. Not like the dark old days, people are listening now.”

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

The court heard that despite these convictions, the Catholic church continued to support Gannon by helping to pay his rent.

While teenage victims wept in relief, a judge revoked bail Monday for a baby sitter who admits she helped her sexual-predator ex-boyfriend molest and film her young charges.

Concetta Jackson, 46, faces 15 to 30 years in prison in what the judge once called a “sociopathic” case of child pornography.

Jackson and another woman helped procure children as young as 3 months old for John Jackey Worman, whose computers held more than 1 million images of child pornography when federal agents arrested him in 2006. Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of manufacturing child pornography while Worman and Dorothy Prawdzik were convicted of multiple child pornography counts at trial.

Worman is awaiting sentencing in the federal pornography case and faces a state trial for the alleged assaults on at least 12 children. Prawdzik is serving a 30-year federal term.

Jackson’s sentencing was delayed Monday so she could be tested for possible brain disorders and other health problems.

Jackson, in exchange for rent money, let Worman install a video camera in her bathroom in Collingdale that let him videotape children as they undressed and left infant girls in his care knowing he would abuse them, prosecutors said.

Jackson had been on home confinement since her September plea, with permission to leave home to shop or see doctors. U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel revoked her bail amid complaints from victims who ran into her and concerns about Jackson’s housing situation, finances and mental health.

Sperrazza called Tulip “diabolical and extremely dangerous. The fact that he has a fiancee with a 12-year-old child and she accepts that is mind-boggling.”

The sentencing of a man for sexually abusing a girl more than a decade ago became even more intense Friday when the judge revealed that the victim’s older sister and brother also had been abused by the same perpetrator.

Christopher M. Tulip, 33, of Cayuga Drive, Niagara Falls, was sentenced by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza to 9x to 14 years in prison for two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

The only victim mentioned in the indictment, now 20, did not come forward until last July. Tulip cannot be prosecuted in the siblings’ cases because the statute of limitations in effect at the time of the alleged acts has expired, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth R. Donatello said.

The girl was abused between the ages of 3 and 14; Tulip pleaded guilty to acts that occurred in 1997 and 1999.

“By the time I was 6, I had more sexual experience than my [current] friends in their 20s,” the woman said in court. “I can’t forget what Chris’ body smelled and felt like. . . . It was always the same: a mixture of smoke and alcohol.”

Tulip blamed substance abuse for his actions.

“If I had never picked up that first joint or first beer, it would have been different,” he said.

Sperrazza disagreed, asking, “Do you know how many people stand before the court with substance abuse problems worse than yours and never touch children? Just about everybody but you.”

That’s when the judge read aloud letters she received from the victim’s siblings, which revealed their abuse by Tulip. The sister wrote that she was abused between ages 9 and 11, and the brother said he was a victim between ages 7 and 12.

Sperrazza called Tulip “diabolical and extremely dangerous. The fact that he has a fiancee with a 12-year-old child and she accepts that is mind-boggling.”